Trent Alexander-Arnold responded to cheating accusations against Liverpool from fans, and vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Liverpool beat Newcastle United 3-1 at Anfield on Thursday. They came from a goal down to take home the three points, with Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Alexander-Arnold himself getting on the scoresheet.
There was major controversy involved in Jota’s equaliser when the former Wolves man netted while Isaac Hayden was down after an aerial challenge. The referee allowed the match to go on and Liverpool capitalised on the opportunity to level the score.
Alexander-Arnold responded to cheating accusations from fans, and insisted that his team had played on as per the referee’s call.
“When the game is going on like that in their box, you’re not really looking round at who’s on the ground, who’s up, you can’t, you’re looking for your teammates trying to score,” the right-back said, as quoted by Liverpool Echo.
“Your eyes aren’t focused on the ground, but if it’s head injuries it’s up to the referee to stop it. He didn’t and we played on until the whistle and scored and that’s all you can do.
“We haven’t cheated or done anything unsportsmanlike, we’ve played to the whistle and scored from it.”
Mo-ney Salah
Alexander-Arnold also heaped praise on superstar teammate Salah, and hailed him as the best player in the world at the moment.
“Best in the world right now, it goes without saying,” the No. 66 added.
“He’s scoring or creating, doing everything game by game. He’s having an incredible season, that’s on his mind.
“He wants to break every record but he wants to go on to put his name in the history books.
“He’s been doing that since the first season he’s come in and he hasn’t took his foot off the pedal so he’ll be looking to break every record he can again,” he concluded.
Read more: Guardiola urges City players to learn from Hamilton and Verstappen – “Have to fight like they did”